Heroes
by Jeralee
Summary: Having outlived many of his allies and even his own family, Raiden chooses to withdraw from military service. Many years later, he wakes up in a dystopian future that is dominated by cyborgs. Recruited by the dwindling human populace, he finds himself fighting a new kind of war. Slight RaidenOC
1. Chapter 1

I thought about Metal Gear the other day although I haven't played the 4th in years, and hadn't had the time to pick up Metal Gear Rising, but I was thinking about Raiden being a cyborg and all and thinking if he was able to age. I can't actually remember if this was ever addressed but I quickly had a plot bunny so this happened. I am so sorry for any mistakes/errors considering I haven't played MGS for years and honestly do not remember a lot so I might not refer to MGS much. It's a very Terminator-ish storyline considering that it's set in the future where cyborg technology have almost completely taken over and humans are on the brink of extinction.

Disclaimer: Don't own Metal Gear

Summary: Having outlived many of his allies and even his own family, Raiden chooses to withdraw from military service and be 'deactivated'. Years later, he wakes up in a dystopian future that is dominated by cyborgs. Recruited by the dwindling human populace, he finds himself fighting a new kind of war.

* * *

**A NEW KIND OF WAR**

"_It's really him."_

"_Yeah, I know. It's crazy, right? I just found him, wrapped up in a box like one of those Ken dolls."_

"_I'm not surprised, considering all his nanomachines have been deactivated; the security there must have been extremely tight."_

"_It wasn't a problem for me at all."_

"_Yes, but now there's another problem and that's getting new armor, weapons, upgrades... the data, the enhancements, the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell blood...He'll be in no position to fight."_

"_Don't worry, leave that to me. I'll come up with some kind of alternative using the stuff we've got for now. Ooh, it's like getting new clothes for Ken, how exciting."_

"..._Don't get carried away;_ w_e need him up and running as soon as possible."_

"_Oh, I think he's waking up."_

"_Good, finish up with your checks and report."_

"_You're not going to stay?"_

"_No, I am needed upstairs. Bring him to me once you're done."_

"_Okay..."_

The two voices had finally ceased with only one remaining.

"—_lo? Hellooo? Can you ...hear...chhh...Hello-?"_

It was the female; her muffled, static-infused voice calling to him. He groaned, opened his azure eyes and bright light flooded his vision; he winced initially, eyelids slamming to a close in response to the visual assault before he re-opened them slowly, allowing his eyes to adjust as the controlled amounts of light gradually allowed the picture before him become softer and softer. It was a fuzzy picture, a mixture of varying colors and shapes, but then the view finally grew sharper and sharper and he could see a blurred outline of a girl before him.

"_Great, you're...chhhhh...-ake..."_ The girl was speaking, but it was no use.

His hearing was no better; it was blotted, the sound clogged up and murky, as though his ears were stuffed with thick wads of cotton wool.

"Hello? Can you hear me properly? How many fingers am I holding up?" She held up her arm but he found that he could not focus on her hand. "Hm? No response. Er...Do you understand English? Hmm, French, perhaps? Bonjour! Umm...Guten Tag? Ciao! Er...Hola? Yeoboseyo? Konnichiwa?"

Her attempts to engage with him still elicited no proper response and she went to a rack affixed to the side of the gurney, delving her hand in to search for something. He heard muffled clattering of metal and soon a bright light shone into his left eye and he knew that she was examining him with some kind of scope. The light disappeared all of a sudden and then decided to reappear in his right eye and his vision went white. A few seconds later and the light retreated and he was seeing spots.

"...Hm...Visuals seem to be in proper working order, if not, a little diluted but still responding to stimuli with no problems." She was muttering to herself, before she hovered over to the side of his head. "Now let's see here..."

Something warm touched his ear, prodding around at his delicate lobe before it went inside the canal; following the bizarre and intrusive movement was a great tug and a 'pop' and suddenly his hearing cleared a great deal.

"That's better..."

Yep, it was a girl's voice.

"Right, I'll just put this...er...thing here."

Emitting another groan, he turned his head to the side to see the retreating back of the girl who had waddled to a desk with something long, wet and sticky in hand. As he lay on the bed, exhaustion took over. He mustered some strength to move his jaw but no intelligible sound emanated from the back of his throat except from a low, grating resonance similar to gears grinding together.

"Here, this might help." The girl had returned to his side and began prodding away at his neck with some sort of tool; he could feel it poking into him and it was not a painful procedure at all but out of reflex, one arm shot out and his fingers grabbed at the scrawny wrist. The other arm grabbed the nearest sharpest object – which turned out to be a scalpel from the operating tray – and he had it poised at her direction, just a centimetre under her chin. The tool in her hand clattered out, dropping onto the floor. He heard a squeak of fear and when his vision finally sharpened, and he found himself staring into the eyes of a clearly frightened human girl. Blue eyes met green. "Eep! Please d-don't kill me! I'm not going to hurt you!" She squeaked, stammering as the scalpel dug painfully into the bottom of her chin, "L-let go!"

"Who are you?"

"Uh...Harrie...My name, its uh...Harrie..."

_Harrie? Who the hell was Harrie?_ His memories did not register anyone he was affiliated with called _Harrie_.

"I'm on your side, see? I'm trying to fix you! Look here..." She flashed him a badge that was pinned to her hoodie; it had an insignia he remembered that once belonged to...

"Doktor?" He growled out.

She nodded slowly. "Y-yeah, you remember, right? Doktor...he helped you during the World Marshal incident...I'm part of his Order."

"And you were fixing me?" It made some sense. She had been examining him earlier on...

"Yeah. Oww...you're hurting me..."

Her meek whimper of pain brought him back to reality. She seemed to be in a great deal of pain, and his instincts or AR systems were not roaring into life, indicating that she was a threat to him. He wanted to let go but found that his arms weren't listening to him entirely. He jerked and floundered a while, trying to loosen up his fingers but to no avail. "...I...I'm...trying." He grunted out in a low rumble, his voice was hoarse and rough, as though from long-term disuse. In fact, it seemed his voice was only stemming from his voicebox only. However, a few seconds later and he managed to drop the scalpel.

"I'll help. H-hold still." She nervously lowered herself down to a crouch beside him to pick up the fallen tool. It turned out to be some kind of miniature wench which she must had been using to tighten some loose bolt in his neck, and she was now prying his fingers off her wrist. She wedged the end of the tool in between her arm and the first finger of his fist. With a small heave, she pried off one finger, then the other and the other, then the rest. Freed from his hand, she cradled her reddening wrist, then met his gaze meekly as he returned to lie over the surface.

"Who are you?" He croaked out, now utilizing this opportunity to glance around the area he was confined in. He studied it carefully; it was a dull gray room with a yellowing human anatomy chart stuck to one far wall. In general, it appeared to be some kind of garage with the many tools of all shapes and sizes hanging from a metal rack affixed to the grimy ceiling. A single lightbulb dangled downwards, casting a dim glow within the room. Aside from that, the rest of the room was filled with cardboard boxes that were overflowing with various mechanical body parts; a cupboard stood stiffly near the boxes, filled to the brim with other strange apparatuses and various junk. A lone single metal bedframe was also shoved to one side, with a filthy mattress and a tattered brown blanket thrown over.

"I told you; my name's Harrie." The girl muttered, and she stuck her hand out in a handshake, which he did not take. Instead, he scrutinized her for a brief moment or so. She was young, with green eyes and a pale complexion. A blue cap sat atop deep, dirty brown hair that went past her shoulders. She was wearing a gray unzipped hooded top with the sleeves rolled to her elbows and a black tank top underneath that was rigged with several holes. Around her neck was a pair of heavy goggles with a thick rim and scruffy glass. A few seconds later and finally, he stuck out a clawed hand and shook her tiny warm hand rigidly. She quickly pulled back however, as though embarrassed by the contact. She left his side to the only desk that was positioned to the far right of the room where she pulled out an old swivel chair with rickety wheels, sat down and began typing away at the equally rickety keyboard and before long, a vitals statistic chart popped into view of the screen, "I found you and brought you here. Don't worry, you're in safe hands. We're the good guys; we're not with the Patriots or Desperado or whatever evil PMCs out there these days. We're none of that."

His eyes narrowed immediately as he contemplated his predicament and her words. "Where am I? What is this place? What happened? Why-"

She craned her head round to him but continued to type away at the screen. "One question at a time, dude." She said with a sniffle, and he was briefly surprised by her aloof, laidback manner, "I know you're really confused right now, maybe even a little scared, but I need to break it down to you slowly, otherwise it might take some time for you to get your head around...or you might just freak out."

Frowning, he let out a raspy scoff at the girl, "Oh yeah? Just try me."

"Huh, so Ken's got a sense of humor." uttered Harrie, who abandoned the computer after a few minutes. Returning to his side, she stared down at him for it seemed he had been lying on some sort of operating table, and she crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side.

"My name's not 'Ken'." He said, "It's Raiden."

"Raiden." She murmured under her breath, "Yeah, I know. I've read about you. Can you sit up?"

"What did you mean by 'read'? Where am I anyway?"

"You're in my lab." She said, "We're underground, somewhere in Denver. As I said before, my name's Harrie. Well, Harriet, to be exact, but no-one really calls me that around here. I'm a mechanic, hence the reason why you're here in the first place. I didn't expect you to wake up so soon, considering your nanomachines were completely disabled and there was so much work I still had to do."

"Deactivated?" He grunted as he tried to sit up, his stiff body creaking and groaning in protest. He recalled then that he'd overheard a conversation some time before he woke up; perhaps he'd enquire later. As he sat up straight, he saw rust and dirt falling off him and fluttering to the dirty tiled ground below in little brown flakes, then proceeded to glance down at himself, "How did you find me?"

"I go on scavenger hunts and you were in the lower basement of the ruined laboratory of _Maverick Industries_." Harrie replied; she pulled her goggles and the band snapped tightly around the back of her head, "I found you so I had you brought back here. Do you mind if I do a quick check?"

He didn't remotely understand. He didn't understand at all. "What do you mean by the ruined laboratory? What's happened to _Maverick_?" He questioned, as she lifted up his arm and held it straight.

"It's gone now." She uttered, inspecting the handiwork keenly. In fact, she was examining his arm so close the glasses of her goggles were almost touching the exterior. She made him turn his arm around and up before attempting to bend it. His arm did not yield to her efforts. "They're all gone."

"Then what about World Marshal? Solis?" His tone growing impatient and desperate, he finally growled out, "_Rose_?!"

Immediately, the computer emitted a loud 'blip' noise in retaliation to his outburst and he turned to the screen. She sighed, and as though reading his mind, she said, "That's going to happen everytime your heart rate spikes up. Calm down. Take it easy...one thing at a time. I'll tell you more later, okay?" She added, as she let go of his arm.

She really wasn't kidding when she told him she would have to break it down to him bit by bit. He sat at the edge of the bed, staring down at his ruined body before bringing his arms up to eye level. Within his fuzzy field of vision, he found that he could still move his fingers to a certain extent, except from his last finger, in which the mobility was now entirely non-responsive. Scanning the rest of himself, he could make out that his entire exterior was damaged, no longer was it the cool, sleek metal he had been fitted and built with...all the enhancements were gone, leaving behind rusted metal and broken parts. The rust was beginning to eat away at his joints, all over his front and shoulder blades. He patted at his lower jaw, finding that his mandible too, was also covered in rust.

"...What happened to me?" He muttered.

"You were deactivated. By that, I mean you were injected with some chemical substance that caused all your nanomachines to perform some kind of manual shut down but with no backlash or repercussions. So, to put it plainly, your 'batteries' were kinda taken out and you were completely unconscious for a while. In fact, you've been shut down for a long time now."

He scrubbed at the imperfect skin of his face with his rusted palm that appeared to be flaking off as well, "...Yeah, I know. It was my final request. I remember."

"Huh? You do...?"

"How long have I been...'deactivated'?"

"If the logs about you are true, then...about seventy years, maybe more?" She said, with a shrug. The lab fell silent following her revelation. "Are you okay?"

Raiden nodded.

"I tried to clean you up as much as possible, but I think I'll need to give you a new paint job, maybe a new eye, some new armor...things like that...and not to mention you're in serious need of upgrading... It's amazing you've woken up considering how outdated your fuel cells are...and I was going to look for new body parts and some kind of fuel for you to use in the junkyard, but then the Gekkos came so I had to hightail." She said, a little forlornly; she was completely oblivious to him as he had winced slightly when she mentioned the paint job. "Do you have any more questions for me?"

"Just one." He grunted out.

"What's that?"

"Why did you wake me up?"

She lifted up her goggles and settled them on top of her cap, and she tried to smile at him, her lips tugging upwards minutely, "Well, we've been looking for you for a long time. We really need your help. You're the only one who can help us."

"Help for what?"

"To win the war." She said, "Against the cyborgs."

...


	2. Chapter 2

Hurray for chapter 2! Thanks soooo much to Guest, Pinochet89 and WolfenAmphithere for the awesome reviews and thanks to those who put my fic on their alerts, too! It means a lot to me knowing that there are people out there who are interested in this story :) Again, apologies for any OOC/mistakes/errors with regards to terms etc, it's really been a long time since I played MGS. If I get anything wrong, so sorry :O

* * *

**WAR MACHINE**

"_Doktor."_

"_Ah, Raiden, my old friend! Long time no see! How are you?"_

"_I'm fine. Just wanted to ask you something."_

"_Yes?"_

"_I never asked you about this before, but...the nanomachines inside my body... Can you shut them down?"_

"_And what kind of question is that?"_

"_If you shut them down for me, does that mean I'll be-"_

"_Dead? Mm...kind of...yes and no. Why do you ask?"_

"_Just curious."_

"_Hm-hmm, I see. Yes, it has been a long time, hasn't it, Raiden? You've hardly changed. Your voice has not changed, your body has not changed, your face has not changed. You still look like the way you did when we deployed you to Africa. Are you tired? Tired of your life? Tired of all the bloodshed, the war, the fighting? Tired of seeing the people who once helped you, and those you helped, grow old and die?"_

"_Doktor..."_

"_The truth is, Raiden, the nanomachines that are in your body will not allow you to simply...'die'. That also means you are incapable of aging. Even when you are hurt, the nanomachines are constantly working, constantly repairing the damage so you are back to normal, good as new as your body is no longer that of a human; in fact, your purpose is no longer belonging to a human, but a machine. A war machine. It is difficult to leave war. Once you become part of it, a part of you cannot let it go. You will always be needed on the battlefield. Also, cyborg ninjas such as yourself are a rarity; you will always be highly sought after."_

"_...But Rose is...and John..."_

"_Well, John is not so Little anymore, eh? He can look after himself. And Rose. Ah! Your wife has always been able to hold it out on her own too, right?"_

"_...Yeah. And I'm...still like this."_

"_I didn't think you'd be sentimental, nor did I believe that you cared what others thought about you."_

"_Doktor, if it's possible, I'd like you to shut the nanomachines down. Not now, of course...when I'm ready."_

"_Are you sure?"_

"_Yes."_

"_...Very well. When you believe it is time, come see me. I'll see what I can do."_

...

"You finished yet?"

Harrie stopped poking at his cheek with her index finger, and nodded. "This synthetic skin...It's...it's so real. The material...the handiwork...the craftmanship..." She muttered, before she exclaimed loudly, "It's perfect!"

"Right."

"I'm serious! It's so life-like."

"Almost." He corrected her, "_Almost_ life-like."

She retreated her hand away and continued to crouch down by his side, resting her chin on her folded arms while he turned his head to gaze at her as he lay on the operating table, "I could make stuff like that for you if you want, but it'll be a silicone skin. It'll look and feel a lot life-like than the one you have right now. It'll cover your jaw, your stitches and those little two Frankenstein holes in your forehead completely. People won't be able to even tell the difference, not even if you stood right in their faces. How about it?"

"Do what you want. I don't care." Raiden muttered half-heartedly. Why would there be a need for him to look more human, to restore him to his former glory, the handsome face he used to have? He had no reason. Not anymore.

Yet again, she appeared oblivious to the dejected tone he had adopted. "This is so exciting, I get to design your new cyborg body and come up with all these amazing weapons to customize you with." Harrie exclaimed happily as she proceeded to whip out a tape measure from her pockets before pulling out the retractable tape and placing it against the length of his arm; she proceeded to measure the width of his shoulders, chest and waist, stretching the tape both horizontally and vertically, "So, how did you get by normal life anyway? Living like a normal guy, holding a job, paying bills and stuff?"

"I didn't."

She stopped measuring him almost immediately, "Oh." She uttered, "You know, you're actually taking this pretty well."

"What do you mean?"

"Well...you're not freaking out or anything." She patted him lightly on the chest, and he raised a brow, "Oh, and I also didn't think your voice would be so...um, it doesn't quite match your face...which is really, really weird, so can I-"

"Leave my voicebox alone."

"Okay." She replied, sulking.

Once she'd finished taking down the rest of his measurements, she popped the tape away into one corner and began scribbling on a piece of crumpled paper with a blunt pencil. He watched her idly; this strange girl was called Harrie, and she was a mechanic...although he believed the job title was a little too vague for whatever field of expertise she truly excelled in. Her examinations and various probings were both highly unpleasant and downright bizarre; as he lay unmoving on the operating table, tired and numb, she had been prodding at him from all possible angles, inspecting his body with all sorts of varying tools of all shapes and sizes, jotting down notes as she went along. She also pressed her ear against his chest at some point. What was she expecting to hear? His non-existent heartbeat? Even a magnifying glass was shoved into his face one random occasion and he saw her enlarged bottle green eye and thick eyelashes behind the glass. She blinked, the eyelashes fluttering like feathers. The eye examined his face steadily for a few moments before she proceeded to trail down the rest of his body, and he felt undeniably violated.

"TransHominid Systems GmbH, Mark Four." She was mumbling quietly under her breath, "Note to self: Carbon nanotube muscle fibers, biotic nanorepair paste, megapixel compound image sensor times two...I'll have to make several visits to the lab and the junkyard in this case..."

It dawned to him she was creating a list of all the materials she would need for his new 'body'. He wondered why most of the self-proclaimed geniuses and cybernetic whizzes he had to meet in his life had to be eccentric to a certain degree. After the brief examination, Harrie grabbed a grease-stained apron from a dark corner and looped it around herself, then pulled off her cap and proceeded to tie her hair into a high ponytail with a band off her wrist. She rolled her sleeves even higher up her arms then pulled on a pair of thick, heavy-duty black gloves. Returning to Raiden, she took one long look at him before grabbing a metal welding mask and a strange tool by the handle that were being supported on the wall by hooks.

"This might sting a little by the way..." She muttered as she pulled out an old, worn out piece of rough paper out from the tool before she searched the cupboards for a new one. After exchanging the old for the new, she pulled the mask over her face, flipped the switch on the wall and then tugged at a piece of string attached to the device; immediately it began whirring into life identical to a chainsaw, with the circular patch of paper spinning round and round in a hypnotizing manner.

"What's that?" He had to yell above the noise just to be heard.

She yelled in response, "In case you haven't noticed, you're dirty and rusty and jaggy all over. I can't have you running around the way you are now, you'll hurt someone without even trying to. It'll only take a minute to sand you down, don't worry."

His eyes widened momentarily and when she brought it down over his chest, sparks were flying and the device was grinding against him and creating squealing noises, like nails on chalkboard. "...What's this war about anyway?"

"What? I can't hear you! You'll have to speak louder!"

He repeated himself twice to be heard.

"Oh! The war! Well, the cyborgs have taken over," She began maneuvering the machine around him expertly, grinding away at one clavicle, "According to history, cyborgs and UGs came about during the war economy. Back then, they were solely for military use and espionage. However, their blueprints were leaked and got into the hands of the public. Soon, they were mass-produced and people began to turn to cyber technology for almost everything. Every disease could be suppressed by the nanomachines, every lost limb replaced with artificial ones...Cyborgs could even be bought at some point from retail stores and were brought into homes for servitude, to substitute manual labor at shops, factories, farms...you name it."

He nodded, although he grunted when she was suddenly began sanding at the side of one of his metal ribs. "I remember that." He croaked out, wincing slightly as she continued to sand off at the ribs one by one.

"Basically, the cyborgs began to take over, both pedestrian and militarized. Essentially, they're humans but with mechanical, robotic parts...and like yourself, because of their enhancements, the cyborgs lasted way longer than humans. Don't get me wrong, they were still human, but since they went through the upgrade, essentially their lifespan no longer applied to a regular human. In the end, there was a sufficient decrease in the human population and a drastic increase in the cyborg population. Now, that only happened in a span of ten years, I think."

"Ten years?"

"Yeah, Ken, you'd be surprised." Harrie replied as she finished up on the ribs, then began sanding at one of his arms; sparks were continuously hitting against the protective mask she had adorned, "Eventually, there was this upgrade available that got downloaded into almost every cyborg. Soon, everything changed after that - the cyborgs believed themselves to be an advanced, superior race compared to what they were formerly and began to take things into their own hands. They rebelled against the humans that helped and created them and formed their own government. They managed to overthrow the humans – we didn't stand a chance by the way - then there was prosecution which quickly evolved into mass genocide, then they attempted a mass conversion of the remaining humans into cyborgs but otherwise, decided that it was easier to exterminate them."

"I get it." He said, as Harrie switched off the device and as it gradually came to a stop, she lifted up the mask over her face and let it rest atop of her head, letting out a gentle sigh. "How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad. You'll see for yourself. It's our fault, anyway. That's what you get when you're too ambitious and take technology too far." She said, placing a hand on her hip, "And that's why we're also glad you're here. You can stop them."

He watched her carefully; she seemed to possess some kind of blind, cheery faith in him and he hadn't even known her for more than an hour. He knew nothing about her; he didn't know her background, her age or even her last name. Nothing. She replaced the mask and switched on the machine again; this time she began sanding at his legs. Ever since he met Doktor, there hadn't been anyone else who worked on him like this – certainly not a girl like Harrie. It was almost embarrassing considering how primitive her resources were compared to the elaborate laboratory and tools Doktor used. In fact, everything in this lab appeared outdated and old-fashioned compared to all the high-tech gear Doktor had.

He was relatively surprised to discover that humans were still weak as ever. Here he thought they could have at least evolved to some extent. He was wrong, of course, as evidenced by this girl before him; she appeared to be an average human being albeit with a strange sense of humor... unless she was hiding a third arm somewhere... He stared at her lopsidedly as she smoothed him down with the care and precision identical to one of those beauty salon technicians he'd seen who worked on Rose whenever he would come with Little John to pick her up from those lengthy appointments.

_Rose..._

His expression fell.

Harrie didn't seem to have noticed his sudden sullen mood, gleefully sanding away at one of his clawed toes. Athough her face was hidden by the mask, never had he sensed someone so _happy_. At least someone was having fun. Whilst the machine whirred and buzzed loudly, he let his gaze rest on the ceiling. Here he was, woken up from a deep sleep, beckoned by the lull of war once again. And according to Harrie, it had been more than seven decades. He never did agree to help Harrie and assist them in winning the war she had been telling him about...but it seemed like he probably didn't have much of a choice. Didn't they know the reason why he chose to be deactivated? The reason why he wanted to be left alone in the basement of Maverick, to be hidden away and locked up firmly by the most robust of security available back then? Didn't they know that he was tired of war and fighting?

And now that he was back, the only reasons he would want to live for would be for Rose and John, and _nobody else_, _nothing else_?

"Whew..." Harrie's voice brought him back to reality yet again and he saw her switching off the machine. She pulled it away from his newly-smoothed down foot which appeared to be gleaming like a crystal under the dim light, then lifted up the mask and wiped away at sweat on her brow. Grinning at him, she said, "Okay, now turn round so I can sand off all the rust on your butt."

He clamped down on his lower jaw with his top lip, hard. "Harrie." He bit out.

"Yeah?" She reached to the side and tugged at a cloth from a hook on the wall before she proceeded to sling it over her shoulder. It was probably going to be used on him for polishing, no doubt.

"Thanks for doing all this, but-"

"What?"

"I never said I was going to help."

Her jaw dropped consequently. "...What?" She squeaked, as Raiden lifted himself from the table and swung his hefty legs around; as his heeled foot made contact with the ground, it cracked underneath from his sheer weight. She let out a gasp when he made another step forwards and once his foot landed, the ground shattered like a mosaic. His immense weight once properly activated was really something she hadn't anticipated.

At first, he wobbled slightly on his legs but once he managed to control his awkward movements, he made his way towards the direction of the apparent exit of her lab. "I can't help you."

She followed after him immediately, having to hop over the wire of the sanding machine so she wouldn't trip up. "Wait, Raiden!" She exclaimed; for once, she'd bothered to use his name. "Raiden, please don't go."

He did not turn to face her. "Waking me up was a mistake, Harrie. I'm not your ally. I'm not your friend. I'm not a human. I'm a cyborg, and I don't want anything to do with this war. I never did."

"I know, Raiden...and I know this is...this is so selfish of us to ask of you...especially since you just woke up and it's been so long and everything's all different and you have no idea what's going on... but if you don't help, there will be no future for all of us. You protect the weak, your sword is your tool of justice!" She continued to exclaim, before she rushed to the side and after some moments struggling with something that was hidden behind a cardboard box, she finally pulled out a long, thin piece of rusting metal and returned to his side, holding it up to him to see.

He stared, recognizing it to be one of his HF blades he had once wielded; she held it out to him, goading him to take it off her. _Tool of justice...protecting the weak...Hmph._ He coldly brushed her off, "Then let there be no future. Maybe that's the way it is supposed to be."

She shook her head wildly, "No! That's not true! Why would you say something like that?"

"And what would you know? I don't know you, and you don't know me. What would you know about me?"

"I know everything about you! I read all about you –the...the logs, the data, the files! I know that you were a child soldier, and you were captured by the Patriots and they turned you into what you are now...but despite all that, you're a hero-"

It was becoming more and more unsettling to hear her mentioning that she had 'read' all about him, and here he was knowing nothing about her. It chilled him to the core. "Shut up." He snarled at her, eyebrows furrowing deeply with anger, "You don't know _anything _about me!"

The lab shook slightly from the volume of his voice, tools clanging against each other noisily and then from the sides of his head, the two flaps of his visor became loose and slammed shut in front of his eyes. The room gradually became engulfed in silence, and as he glared at her from behind the dark glass, he could see her expression dampening until the door to the lab opened and an old, stern-faced man dressed in a large and hulking, chocolate-brown trenchcoat stood at the doorway with a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder.

"What the hell is going on here?" The man promptly began to demand angrily.

He was joined by a small globular machine with two limbs that substituted for legs along with a final limb that was flapping around helplessly on top of the spherical robot. A Dwarf Gekko...only it was painted a gray in color. Raiden hadn't seen one for some time, especially a gray one. He also wondered what one might be doing here, but he didn't sense any hostility from the little robot. Harrie turned to face the newcomers, "Richmond!" She squawked in shock, as the man stormed into the laboratory using his metal walking stick for support. He stopped shortly in front of the duo whilst the Dwarf Gekko trailed after him, using its two hands to prance around in an awkward manner.

"What the hell are you trying to do?" The man named Richmond fumed, whilst Harrie shrunk away. Meanwhile, the Dwarf Gekko jogged over to Raiden and looked up, saw him staring at it from the bottom of his eyes, and immediately scrambled back towards the old man, hiding behind his legs. "I knew this was a bad idea...leaving you in the hands of Harrie our...'delightful' mechanic." Richmond muttered under his breath, shaking his head. He didn't seem to have noticed the Dwarf Gekko that was cowering behind him. Eventually, he averted attention to the cyborg who was still eyeing the Dwarf beadily, "Mr Raiden? May I have a word with you, please?"

"Actually, I was about to leave." The cyborg grunted, and Harrie was about to wail in protest again until Richmond held out his hand, stopping him.

"Mr Raiden, I am so sorry that Harrie has made you upset. I shall take over and duly explain all you need to know, I only require five minutes of your precious time. After that, you will be free to do as you please."

Raiden stared him down but the man named Richmond was equally undeterred by the cyborg's steady, intimidating gaze. "...Fine." Raiden eventually grumbled out, and both Harrie and Richmond were suddenly wearing wide grins on their faces.

"Thank you." Richmond said happily, before gesturing to the cyborg towards the door of the lab. "Can you walk, yes? Harrie, did you fix him?"

"He's fine...I did all the mandatory checks. I was sanding him too, so...yeah, he's fine..."

"Great, thanks. Mr Raiden, come this way, please, we've much to tell you about. You too, Shelly, come along."

Richmond stepped out first, with the gray Gekko trailing after him; Raiden made a motion to follow. Before he left, however, he felt something press into his palm and turned round expectantly. It was Harrie; she was looking up at him with an apologetic expression that he felt the tiniest jolt of remorse course through his system for having raised his voice at her unceremoniously. When he threw his glance to his hand, he noticed she had handed him the hilt of the rusted, useless HF blade for his taking.

"Take it," She said, "It belongs to you."

However, to her dismay, he did not accept the blade. "No," He replied, "Not anymore."


	3. Chapter 3

Hello everyone! Thank you Pinochet89, Clara, WerewolfCrime and grandshadowseal for the reviews and favs/alerts :) Before writing this I watched some videos of Metal Gear Rising, so I guess I'll be taking elements from that game and incorporate it into this story. I am pleased to present to you the third chapter ~ Whilst there is no love blooming between our cyborg and our mechanic (which is a bit of a shame, I guess), I hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!

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**WELCOME TO THE FUTURE**

Raiden followed the man named Richmond out of Harrie's underground lab. Once they reached the top of the stairs, he noticed that Harrie's lab appeared to be a basement of some sort and the floor above was belonging to a bookstore. He glanced around, having to step over the fallen bookcases and piles and piles of dusty, discarded books on the floor along the way. Behind the clerk's counter was a small desk containing a strange machine and some tools. Apparently Richmond must have been working there until he overheard the argument. Richmond opened the two double doors of the store and exited, before prompting the cyborg to follow once more. Outside, and Raiden's lingering sensory functions were immediately hit with the frothy, unmistakable stench of metal, blood and rust.

"Welcome to the future," Richmond said, gesturing with his arms out as Raiden glanced around, "It's probably not as you had imagined it."

The sky was a dull, dull gray, casting an equally drab tint on the dilapidated buildings that surrounded them. The sun was nowhere to be seen. The ground was no better; it appeared to be a gray desert consisting entirely of debris and dirt with no hint of fauna anywhere. The atmosphere was thick and stuffy, laden with dust clouds and musk. It appeared they were standing in the middle of a street that once belonged to a larger, busier part of the city for he saw that the many fallen, crumbled buildings surrounding them were a mix of large buildings, skyscrapers and stores. He also saw a church, some restaurants, a diner, a pharmacy, a flower shop and a record store. Unsurprisingly, they were all abandoned and crumbling, with windows smashed, doors broken. Nearby, a small line of empty, rotted vehicles that closely resembled cars were parked next to a half-fallen lamppost. Other cars in his field of vision were either upturned or lying on their sides, riddled with gaping bullet holes.

Raiden took a step forwards but he found the air very difficult and heavy to breathe in, and as he lowered himself down onto one knee, he let out a rather strangled cough. "What happened?" He croaked out; although he was a cyborg, the dreary conditions appeared to affect him some way or another. He drove his hand into the gray dirt and picked up a handful, only to watch the dry soil in his palm wither away in the wind, "Why has it become like this?"

Richmond seemed unaffected by the desiccated climate and surroundings however, and shrugged casually. "Global warming, due to intense mass-production and manufacturing...all that smoke and fume went into the atmosphere and now the sun only comes out once a day for an hour or so. You get used to it." He replied, glancing around the rest of the miserable, ruined city. Turning to Raiden, he cocked his head towards the direction of the church. "This way."

The cyborg followed Richmond, crossing the street and towards the derelict church. The streets were empty, entirely devoid of human presence. "Is it just you and Harrie here?" Raiden asked, settling his eyes on the man who was hobbling along the street on his stick.

"Yep."

"You two related?"

"Nope. I took Harrie in when she was a toddler. I've been raising her like my own."

_So Richmond must be like a surrogate father to her_, he thought. "And what happened to her parents?"

"Killed by cyborgs."

A flicker of guilt consumed him for having inquired about her past. "...Isn't it a bit lonely here? Haven't you considered moving elsewhere?"

"Where else can we go? Besides, it's actually quite safe here."

"You think this is safe?"

"We're underground."

"You're still exposed."

"Ahh, you truly are a soldier, aren't you? Your mind; it's been sharpened, tailored for war and battle!" While Raiden grunted in response, Richmond chuckled as the Dwarf Gekko trailed after them, bumbling close beside the old man; it stopped at another set of hatch doors near the church cemetery before opening the doors for them, "We can talk more in here. The sun's due to set in an hour so I'll ask Harrie to come over and pick you up then. It's actually a little tolerable when it's night because it's not so hot and the weather calms down, but that's when the Gekkos come out because of those conditions. Thanks, Shelly. Close the doors for us, please."

Yet again, they traveled down another set of stairs after Shelly closed the doors behind them as requested and they arrived at another underground shelter. Richmond's lodgings were in slightly better shape than Harrie's. His shelter was also bigger, brighter and cleaner; it consisted of a desk that stood proudly in the middle with a map displayed on top. A bed was at the side, with the blanket neatly folded and the pillow carefully propped up. A set of hooks stuck to the wall in one corner held up some jackets and what appeared to be a sneaking suit.

Richmond took one chair and gestured for Raiden to sit opposite him but the cyborg chose to stand. "My name is Edgar Richmond. This is my trusty Dwarf Gekko, Shelly."

At that point, the Dwarf waved at the cyborg with one of its limbs before it hopped over into Richmond's lap and Raiden watched as the old man gently pulled off one of its arms. The Dwarf didn't seem to mind. Settling the unwanted limb on the table, he stood again and carried the Dwarf over to a tube sticking downwards from the ceiling that contained a rounded slot that looked like it might fit the slot of the Dwarf where the missing arm had been attached to. He popped the Dwarf into the end of the tube, fitting neatly into the slot with a loud 'pop' and using the remaining two arms; he bent them into a ninety degree angle.

"Shelly can act as a periscope, you see." Richmond explained, "This tube here joins onto one of Shelly's arm slots and in turn, this tube runs from here, underground, all the way up high to the church's spire, giving me a good view of our surroundings."

"Yeah, okay." came Raiden's somewhat dry response, "I'm surprised this church is still standing in one piece."

"We weren't hit as bad compared to the other cities." The old man continued to mutter as he steered the Gekko-scope around in a one hundred and eighty degree angle, "There are people in other bases like this one spread around in different parts of the country...Harrie and I moved here in order to participate in 'Project Raiden', and that was to locate your whereabouts."

"Project Raiden?" The cyborg questioned, crossing his arms over his chest. Following the movement was a stiff groan from his rusted joints. Anymore of that and he wondered if he might actually fall apart anytime soon.

"You're the only cyborg known to have assisted humans." Richmond replied, and he let go of the Gekko-scope to face the cyborg directly. "That makes you one of our most powerful allies. According to history, you withdrew from military service about sixty years after the World Marshal incident and you chose to be deactivated... then you simply dropped off the radar. No-one knew where you were, what had truly happened, and there was a lot of speculation as to where you might have been laid to rest. It could've been Alaska, it could've been in Liberia...but we found you here in Denver, hidden deep underground in the ruined laboratory of a sealed-off base of _Maverick Industries_. It sounds easy, right? But it wasn't. Maverick went to great lengths to ensure that you weren't found. Harrie had been excavating the same site for almost a year. I kept telling her to give up but she was sure this was a lead."

_They think I'm a god or something_, Raiden thought. "Harrie said she found me on a scavenger hunt."

"Come on now, Raiden, the girl's been searching for you for years...you inspire her, bring her hope like no other...you gave her a reason to keep on going when most people would've given up, and now that she's finally found you..." Richmond deliberately left the sentence trailing, grinning widely.

_She probably didn't want to come across to me as a nutjob, I suppose._ Raiden thought. "Why do you think I'll help you? From what you're telling me, it sounds like you haven't even considered what I think about all of this. You just took me and woke me up...now you're expecting me to fight."

"You're our last chance, Raiden. That's the whole reason why Harrie and I are here. I understand this is all terribly unfamiliar to you but once I explain, you'll find out it is not so different to what you did in the past after all."

He hated the past. Honest to god, he despised his past, had always tried to run away from it and to forget it but to no avail, and he certainly didn't appreciate Richmond speaking so offhandedly and freely about him like this. The same went for Harrie. He grunted out, "How is that you know so much about me?"

"Ahh, let me show you." Richmond said, pulling out a drawer. Plunging a hand in, he lifted out a manila folder and placed it on the surface of the desk before he eased himself into his chair, resting comfortably. "_Project Raiden_ contained a detailed and most informative study of your history, your background, your feats. You're kind of a hero."

He got the gist of it too thanks to Harrie. Every time the girl spoke to him he literally saw admiration in her eyes glimmering like stars. Raising an eyebrow, he plucked the folder off the table and rifled through; there was indeed, a strenuous amount of hand-collected data about him stuffed in the file. It was almost spine-chilling. As he continued to go through the files, he'd come across a photograph of himself, Rose and John when they'd went to a trip to Paris. They were standing in Trocadero with a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower behind them. Little John was holding one robot hand with a Mickey Mouse headband perched atop the crown of his white-blond hair, grinning at the camera. Rose was looking pretty in her smoky makeup, dark, suede jacket and heels. And there he was dressed in that black, large trenchcoat that covered his neck and chin all the way up to his nose since nothing else was large enough to cover his awkward, mechanical build without making him look box-shaped or downright bizarre (it was either that or a black binbag. He didn't choose the bag). Even in civilian clothes and the civilian body he still looked odd. In the photo, he resembled the monster who'd crawled straight out of a B-horror movie, an absolute abomination. Certainly not human. Now that he remembered, he'd recalled the many unfriendly and often cold, piercing stares they'd received. Disheartening to say the least, as it killed the romantic atmosphere of the French city and the desire to relax and have fun with the family.

As the memories rushed back to him, he found himself clenching the photo that it crumpled slightly under his sweltering grip. "I've already told Harrie and I'll tell you too. I'm not interested in this war. I'm not interested in fighting." He grunted as he pocketed the photo.

Richmond sighed as the cyborg handed him the folder even though he had only one brief glimpse through. "I had the feeling that might be the case. But even if you don't want to be a part of this war, we can't deactivate you. We don't have the resources."

"Can't Harrie replicate the process?"

"She's a mechanic and a darn good one, but she doesn't know how to repeat the process. That's the only thing she doesn't know." Richmond said, rubbing at his withered, stubbly chin, "I'm sure Harrie has told you about the cybernetic war. Did she tell you that humans are on the brink of extinction too?"

He briefly remembered her saying something like that but it wasn't quite along those lines. He remembered her telling him that there was an increase in cyborg population and a decrease to the human population.

"Did she also tell you that we're also losing the war?" Richmond uttered under his breath; he pulled off his glasses and wiped them clean with a dirty cloth before prodding them back over his nose, "The cyborgs and their forces are growing stronger and stronger. They're capturing and killing more and more humans every second, every day. If you help us, Raiden, we'll need you to travel to the headquarters of the main resistance and intel. No doubt your presence there will greatly boost morale. Here, I want you to have this." Richmond promptly opened one of the cupboards and took out a black arm band which he proceeded to show Raiden.

The cyborg recognized it immediately once he took it off the old man. "This is..."

"A symbol of our cause." Richmond replied, "It means you are one of us."

It was the logo of Philanthropy. He'd recognize it anywhere. "And where are the headquarters?"

"It's-" An interruption caused by Shelly the Dwarf Gekko made the two men turn to the little robot; it had begun flailing, arms wriggling around while emitting a high-pitched wailing noise and immediately, Richmond got off the chair in a flash, ignoring the fact that he'd sat up with so much force it fell backwards, and he hobbled over to the Gekko-scope. "Shelly? What is it? What do you see?" He promptly peered into the glass and withdrew in a second. "Shit..."

"What is it?" Raiden demanded, noticing how distressed the old man seemed to have become.

"It's a RAY; usually they just pass overhead but this one's circling for some reason." Richmond murmured, before he suddenly exclaimed, "_Harrie!_"

Raiden watched the old man move away from the Gekko-scope, scooping up his hunting rifle that he'd left leaning against the wall along with his walking stick, whilst Raiden went to the scope and peered through the glass himself. He could see a large but familiar, sleek black Metal Gear hovering around a certain spot a great distance away from their shelter; peering further, he could see an equally familiar girl hiding behind a large rock.

"This isn't good!" Richmond was yelling, hobbling towards the door.

"Wait—" The cyborg said quickly, halting the man in his tracks. How on earth would a hunting rifle fare across a RAY, and how would Richmond fight off the MG anyway? For a brief moment, he did a double-take, realizing that he'd stopped Richmond without a second thought. As Richmond eyed him anxiously, Raiden added, "I'll go."

At first, Richmond stared at the cyborg with his eyes wide and mouth agape, but then nodded briefly. "Be careful, Raiden."

With Richmond's blessing in the form of a firm pat on his metal shoulder, Raiden proceeded to leave the safety of the shelter and arrived outside; it had been a rather long time since the entire time, his body had been creaking from the amount of internal rust that had built up over the span of seven decades, and he wondered if he'd be able to even fight. Even his vision was still fuzzy, and no matter how many times he attempted to adjust it, it did not improve; Raiden blindly made his way to the site where the RAY was hovering.

As he neared the plains, he could see the great, hulking machine and Harrie who was trying to seek shelter from the large rock. He saw it lunge at her – and without thinking twice – he charged forwards and seized hold of its massive tail, stopping the RAY altogether. He saw it turn ever-so-slightly, and then there was a sickening crack as it pulled its tail away violently and he went flying backwards from the force. He'd fought RAYs before but the assault had him dizzy and disoriented as he landed back down on the ground. Perhaps an upgrade was solely needed after all. With the newcomer, the Metal Gear averted attention from Harrie and turned to the cyborg instead.

"Raiden, no!" Harrie exclaimed, watching helplessly as it began to trudge towards him.

"Stay back!" He yelled, just as one of its gargantuan foot came crashing down on him; he grunted from the sheer impact as the foot collided with him, driving him into the ground. From the corner of his eye, he saw Harrie making a move towards him but he shook his head fiercely. "No! You stay there!"

"But-"

"Don't move!" He yelled; the blow was enough to kickstart his sensory inhibitors and suddenly he was experiencing pain. He didn't quite remember RAY's being this powerful.

Noticing that Raiden hadn't gotten up or recovered from the assault as the foot lifted off him, Harrie pushed herself off the ground, limping slightly from her injured ankle. "HEY!" She grabbed a hefty stone and with a swing of her arm, tossed it at the RAY's foot which had been readying itself for another attack. "Hey, you leave him alone!"

Now the RAY had returned to focus on Harrie; she paled and began hopping backwards although she knew there was simply no place to hide. Emitting a great roar, the RAY's shielded core opened up and she stared wide-eyed into its laser as it whirred into life, aiming at her. Before the laser could hit her, however, she suddenly found herself being tackled to the ground and she looked up to see none other than Raiden who had managed to reach her in time. The lasers went firing into empty space, having missed its target.

Harrie was blinking up at the cyborg numbly, "R-Raiden..." She squeaked out breathlessly.

"What the hell do you think you were doing!?"

"I-I had to do something..."

"You could've gotten yourself killed! What are you doing out here anyway?"

"I went out to look for parts but then the RAY..." She said, letting her sentence trail off as the RAY came at them again - before it could stomp on them, he'd grabbed her and in a quick turn of events, maneuvered her so she was underneath him, safe. "Raiden-" She was interrupted when she saw the great shadow of the Metal Gear's foot above them, and she squeezed her eyes shut when it came crashing down; the ground shook, trembling violently from the assault and she shakily opened one eye and glanced up to see that Raiden had taken the brunt of the attack.

"Ungh!" He grunted; now felt like a good time for his back to possibly snap in half. It was amazing he'd managed to even block the foot without getting both of them crushed to death. Having Harrie here certainly was a disadvantage, especially when he wasn't even sure himself if he would be able to win this battle, and with no weapons, too. "Get outta here..." He said, a tad weakly, as it retreated its foot. "I'll deal with this."

It didn't appear Harrie had much of a choice nor a chance to escape, since the RAY had reared back up and was readying itself for another attack. It was no use; he needed his blade. The foot came down again, and Harrie screamed as the ground proceeded to quake furiously underneath from the impact; the noise was deafening and witnessing the girl's terrified form opened his eyes a great deal as to how damaging it was for a civilian to be caught in the middle of a battlefield. This time Raiden had faltered slightly from the attack, his arms trembling, and she knew he wouldn't last long if this came up.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine...You need to get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you behind, I – _HEAT BLADE_!" She screamed, pointing behind him; Raiden grabbed her once more and this time, pushed them both to safety as the RAY's blade came slamming down. Nevertheless, the ground shuddered from the impact and Harrie went flying into the air as the ground practically splintered into two. She landed painfully, rolling to the side, and when she saw the RAY's blade lift back up, she got up wobbly and caught sight of the cyborg lying nearby. "Raiden!" She yelped, as he got up and made his way towards her.

"I'm okay. Let's get out of here." He said, before he lowered himself to her level and grabbed her once more, although this time, he swept her legs off the ground and she found herself in his arms. Unfamiliar with this arrangement, she glanced up at him numbly as he began to carry her out of the plains. If his arms weren't made out of metal, it would've been a far more comfortable experience, she thought. "Hang on tight."

Before she could reply, he was suddenly dashing out of the plains at an astonishing speed. He'd never performed a Ninja Run when he was carrying someone; Harrie was clinging onto him for dear life. The RAY followed after them with a shower of bullets from its wings which he missed narrowly, had he not been checking over his shoulder every now and then. She squeezed her eyes shut as the bullets ricocheted off the ground like rain; the entire time she was praying not to be shot; if she recalled correctly, Raiden had been involved in security work as a bodyguard. The rate of his clients being protected and safe at the end of the mission had been 98.5% (...with the 1.5% accrued from the African President N'mani's assassination at the hands of the Desperado cyborg called _Sundowner_). Suddenly, Raiden jerked and they both went tumbling to the ground - he'd been hit by one of the bullets - and Harrie went flying out of his arms, landing a distance away. His view went upside down as he went spiraling and when he finally stopped, he was left to gaze up at the giant RAY as it finally caught up to them.

It lunged forwards and caught him in between the jaws, lifting him high into the air; Harrie was left watching helplessly from the ground. With a curled fist, he beat down on the massive Metal Gear, punching several dents into the thick, black metal. It was not until Raiden saw a familiar little robot bumbling towards the scene before coming to a stop beside Harrie; it began leaping up and down in the air and he could see that it was the Dwarf Gekko. He noticed that it was holding his rusted HF Blade in its limb. Richmond must've sent it for them. The Gekko stopped hopping altogether, and waving the blade around in the air like the propellers of a helicopter, it threw the blade towards his direction; Harrie's eyes had widened as the blade spun through the air in a circle, hurtling closer and closer towards the direction of Raiden and the RAY, he stretched his arm out and the hilt of the blade landed neatly into the palm of his hand.

With the HF blade in hand, Harrie and Gekko watched as Raiden began hammering away at the RAY immediately. Sensing the counter attacks, it threw the cyborg out of its mouth and before he landed on the ground, he gave the RAY several slashes with the blade and one of its knees gave way, with its mounted launchers and armor slashed like ribbons. The RAY gave a cry as it dropped to one side, its knee useless.

The cyborg landed on the ground in a low crouch before rising to stand, blade at the ready in an offensive stance. "It's payback time." He muttered, before the flaps of his visors slammed shut over his eyes.

...


	4. Chapter 4

Hey everyone, thank you for the reviews :3 Thanks to grandshadowseal, shoni. mei1, Guesty TD, Akuma Kawashima and dillydip248 for reviewing. Guesty TD – many apologies but since it is an anonymous review, I cannot PM you, but yeah! I totally get what you mean. I actually find writing Raiden's outward character easier than writing about how emotionally traumatized he is etc. I will try to find some windows of opportunities to balance his violent persona since there hasn't been any so far yet. However, it is the 4th chapter and I'm not sure if some of you guys are find that this is either dragging on, or if there needs to be more time to explain things.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, too~

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**MY LOVE IS LIKE A RED, RED ROSE**

Raiden always had rotten luck.

The easiest he could explain this was, for example, he entered a bank establishment and there were two queues. One queue was massive and another was short. Out of common sense, he joins the shortest queue. Almost immediately the other line begins to pick up but for some reason, the queue he has just joined does not budge an inch and he ends up waiting longer than originally planned. So it goes.

The same could perhaps apply to this situation; he quickly began to fight the RAY and he discovered it should not be so difficult after all once he had a weapon in hand (despite the dulled, blunt edge of his blade) as the RAY also appeared to fall into the standard list of the many Metal Gears he'd faced off. Once he'd crippled one of its knees, it resorted to the usual techniques he'd remembered RAYs utilizing; it zoomed in on him, tried to crush him several times with its gigantic feet, then occasionally it'd fired off some missiles from its pauldrons which he'd evaded using a few clumsy, imperfect backflips. He concentrated on the other foot then, remembering the tactics he used to employ when fighting off against these brutal machines. The RAY was powerful but it was too slow, having to turn its enormous body around just to fend him off. Occasionally it'd dart forwards and backwards, flitting around like an insect, and then a flamethrower would come into effect but the plains granted Raiden enough space to take dodge. When it finished spewing forth flames, he'd merely repeat the process of hack, slash, cut once the RAY was wide open for assault.

A heat blade sprang out on occasion too. He made short work of it by dodging it before jumping onto the blade when it got stuck into the ground; he would proceed to run on its spine and up to the MG's core before slashing at it. The RAY would retaliate by shooting more missiles at him. Again, he would dodge, but there would always be the one that he couldn't avoid no matter what. He wasn't as agile as he used to be. He found himself falling over more than he should've.

He tried to close in on it – but the RAY anticipated his move - and with one massive swing of its hulking tail, he tried to parry the blow with the blade but his entire body left the ground. His back met hard brick and metal – he'd been thrown towards the direction of a large building with so much brute force the wall crumbled under him and he went hurtling inside the building and out, breaking down another wall in progress, landing outside in another section of the plains. At least he was still clutching his blade tightly in one clawed hand.

With Raiden out of the picture, the RAY turned away, its focus solely concentrated on Harrie.

"Uh-oh." She began to limp away immediately with Shelly bouncing after her.

Meanwhile, Raiden was stuck in his own predicament. He got up, shaking debris and dust off himself. He tried to stand, legs wobbling slightly. He could see that the building in front of him was the only thing separating him from the RAY. Going round it would take some time; the best way to get back to where Harrie was would be to use the holes he'd created. Kicking off the ground, he tried to leap back onto the hole he'd created and fallen out of only to lose his footing, tumbling to the ground as his arms grappled at thin air. He landed painfully, a few loose bricks dropping on top of his head for good measure, too. He had to raise his arms to shield himself. A part of him wanted to give up, actually. He was tired. So very tired. He felt like a relic. A remnant of a time long past. Some ancient artifact that belonged in a museum, to be pointed at and marveled and to be remembered by a plaque or a leaflet.

However, he couldn't let Harrie, an innocent, die.

Thrusting the HF blade into the dull soil, he used it to push himself off the ground. He was exhausted, having to slump over it for a few seconds with his head low, sucking in some noisy breaths. The time had certainly taken a toll on his abilities, but if it was something Doktor had told him, it was that he could push himself beyond any limits of a normal man no matter what. With a growl, he attempted the jump again, HF blade in hand.

To his surprise, he landed successfully, swaying slightly on his weak legs. As soon as he regained balance, he charged through the building and saw the RAY advancing on the mechanic, fast. It slammed one foot down and as the ground quaked, she was thrown off her feet. The Dwarf fared no better as it rolled around helplessly. Harrie tried to crawl away, only for the RAY's other foot to come crashing down, blocking her left and right. Once Shelly stopped rolling, it stood in front of her but Raiden could see its limbs shaking as it faced off the giant machine before it; she had grabbed the little robot, hugging it tightly to herself as the great Metal Gear loomed over them both, readying its massive foot to crush them once and for all. In response, Shelly hugged her back.

He couldn't let this happen. He kicked off the ground as hard as he could, propelling himself towards their direction. He closed in on the RAY as it stood with its back to him and with the blade poised for striking, he closed his eyes as he slammed into the machine. There was a sound like a bomb exploding.

Then everything went dark.

...

"Jack?"

_...Hn...ngh...W-what..._

"Jack..."

_...Rose? Is that you? Rose! Where are-_

"Jack, please come back home. Please come back to me."

_...Huh?_

"It's been ten years; don't you think you've been gone long enough? Little John will be going to college soon. I...wanted you to come and see him off because he'll be living in the dormitory for the rest of the semester. He wanted to see you before he left. I hope this gets to you safely. We'll always be waiting for you...Please come back home..."

...

Someone was holding him. "Raiden!" A voice exclaimed. Now he was being shaken to and fro fiercely. There was a high-pitched ringing noise in his ears, but he thought he could make out a familiar voice, and the muted, familiar voice was screaming, "Raiden! No...no, no, wake up!"

He didn't want to move...

"Raiden, wake up, please!"

He remained still, unresponsive.

"Raiden!"

"Ngghhh." He felt obligated to respond. Pain wracked his entire body and the person who was shaking him was not helping. His head throbbing, the name of his beloved escaped his mouth in a hoarse croak. "Rose...?"

The shaking stopped, and he opened his eyes weakly to see a familiar, scruffy mechanic looming above him. No, it was not Rose. It was the girl he knew to be Harrie. They had been under attack by a RAY. Oh. Now he remembered. He threw himself into the RAY. A suicidal and brash tactic but here he was...

"...Raiden?" She squeaked out.

He forced himself to sit up only to discover that he could not and that he was lying in a pool of white, slippery goo which he realized was his own artificial blood. With what little strength he had, he threw his glance down to himself then tried to move his arms and legs. His right arm was missing completely, sparks crackling and firing from his shoulder like tiny fireworks. His left was strangely intact but completely stripped of its exterior protective plates. One of his legs was ripped from the knee down, lying uselessly on the ground and only being held together by a few loose wires. He didn't even want to know what happened to his other leg.

"Shelly, he's okay! Come on, help me lift him up, he's losing a lot of blood – " He could hear Harrie exclaiming with relief as she rose to stand and he saw the Dwarf Gekko at his side and he was being lifted up. Harrie returned in front of him; hands placed gently on the sides of his face. "You're going to be okay...you're gonna be okay."

Despite Harrie's eccentric nature, he was relatively surprised to find that she had a delicate bedside manner. She disappeared from his field of vision and there was a grip under his arms and he found himself being dragged across the harsh ground, white blood leaking underneath him and soiling the ground. How on earth could Harrie carry him? He weighed over three hundred tonnes, maybe more. Perhaps that was the reason they kept stopping and starting. He could see one useless clawed foot being dragged in front of him whilst the other leg was a distance away and being pulled along by a long, thick red wire...further away, he saw an unmoving RAY on the ground engulfed in smoke and flames with a gaping hole in its body.

"...Rose..." He kept muttering under his breath, as they dragged him back to the shelter. As he drifted in and out of consciousness, he thought he heard Rose's voice calling out to him, too.

...

For what seemed like an eternity, Raiden lived the next couple of weeks in a state that could only be described as though one was in a cinema viewing a movie but with no access to popcorn or soft drink to enjoy the experience. Furthermore, this movie was not enjoyable and to his dismay, did not last an hour or two long. In fact, it was very long and winded. He was disengaged and distant the entire time during the experience, detached from his body and the entire world. There he was, sitting in an empty screening room where it was dark and he had taken a seat in a middle row, staring at the screen, watching the events unfold before him. And he could not do anything about it.

The movie was focused on one setting only – it was Harrie's dark and dank lab - in first person perspective. There was the door a distance in front of him, the computer and desk to the left, the shelf with useless metal parts to the right; he guessed Harrie had propped him upright on the operating table using elastic belts and plastic fasteners to hold him down.

Harrie was working the entire time. Richmond occasionally came and so did Shelly, but they would only stay for a few hours before returning to their shelter. Most of the time, it was just Harrie. Raiden saw her sitting at her desk with a dim lamp as the only source of light and she'd be wearing this ridiculous helmet with the magnifying glass strapped to the front. He'd see her furiously drawing with a blunt pencil before rubbing away at the paper in front of her with a worn-out eraser. He'd see her turn to him occasionally as though she was checking up on him, but then she would glance away at the human anatomy poster on the wall, then return to work and continue her endless drawing spree. This went on for a few days.

Eventually, she succumbed to exhaustion after several nights of nothing but work and she slumped over her desk for a day or so with her eyes closed, mouth half-open. Snoring. During her sleep, he'd hear her whine and call out for her mother. When she finally awoke, he would see her jerk in her spot and she would merely sit in her seat as though aware of her nightmares and the fact that she'd been calling for her parents, and she would stare dejectedly into her lap. Next, she would begin berating herself angrily before proceeding to draw again. He would occasionally see her eating some cold food out of a tinned can or drinking from a flask. When she changed clothes, he'd turn away from embarrassment, respect and courtesy.

Aside from that, he deduced she was a workaholic.

A week later, she took the numerous drawings which she had been working on and pinned them to a cork board. She ran out of space and ended up sticking some on the wall. He could see that she had drawn blueprints of a cyborg body. His body. Other sketches contained blade designs, visors and other complicated illustrations of weapons. They were all eerily, incredibly detailed.

Practical work resumed once all designs were collated. Initially, he saw Richmond carry some parts and scraps of metal down the stairs to the lab and deposit them in a corner for her one morning. Once everything had been gathered, Harrie began working away on metal with the tools she had in her lab, hammering away with a hammer, sawing with a saw, welding with a welder, sanding with a sander, the usual. She would make ten, twenty randomly assorted metal pieces a day. The metal pieces she'd been shredding and grinding with the finesse and precision of an artist finally began to form shape and he could see that she was creating new armor, new shoulder plates, arm pieces, leg protectors, everything. With the new pieces, she spray painted them a black in color and she left them to dry on the floor on top of some old newspaper. Then one day, again, he saw her slumped over her desk, eyes closed, mouth open. Snoring. She was holding a drill in hand with the mask still strapped around her head.

One day, he witnessed a conversation between herself and Richmond:

"Is he awake?" Richmond was asking, standing in front of Raiden's vision so closely he could see up the old man's nostrils.

"I don't think so." replied Harrie, as she worked on the computer, tapping away at the keys without looking at the board once. "He's in some kind of cyborg coma."

"Is that even possible?"

"Yeah, because Raiden's not like the other cyborgs. He's different."

"So, what exactly happened that day?"

"He catapulted himself into the RAY like a cannonball. I think he was actually trying to do something else because it looked horribly wrong. He still killed it anyway." She said, sniffling slightly. Perhaps 'killed' was the wrong term to describe the fact that he defeated the RAY, but oh well. "You should've been there to see it."

"Hm, wish I had been there to see it, especially since it takes about ten humans to bring one down in two hours or something whilst Mr Raiden completely annihilated one in minutes no less. Sure, he'd kinda hurt himself in process, but still..."

"Yeah, he kinda exploded upon impact. Lost an arm and leg, but at least his head and spine were intact."

"What was he thinking?"

"It's been a long time since he fought, plus his body was completely breaking down. It was amazing he could still move like that and even go into Blade Mode."

"Poor guy." Richmond was peering at him again and Raiden could now count all the wrinkles on the old man's face, "Can he hear us? Yoohoo? Mr Raiden? Anyone in there? Hello?"

Nothing happened.

He sighed. "It's no use. Only the Church of Otacon will help him now. I shall pray for him."

Now Harrie sighed. "How can you believe in that religious mumbo-jumbo, Richmond? He was not a Holy Man, but a Man of Science."

The conversation promptly ended there after Richmond shrugged. And Raiden sat in the empty cinema room, with nowhere to go, nothing to do, but then -

"Hello, Jack."

He turned to the direction of the voice to see a familiar dark-haired woman standing at the aisle dressed in a plain white v-neck top and slacks. "Rose?"

The woman smiled at him in response. "How are you feeling?"

"Rose!" He sprang up immediately in his seat in shock, eyeing her from head to toe. For a split second, he was dumbstruck, amazed and at the same time, frightened even. Something was wrong. Something was incredibly, terribly wrong. Rose was...young, the way she had looked all those years ago, when John was still a little kid and they were together as a family. He was blatantly confused, and stricken with a bout of awkwardness. "Rose, what -? What is this? Are you...?"

She shook her head, "No, Jack. This is a memory bank. Your files were sabotaged from the battle and all necessary data are currently being backed-up. Don't worry, everything will be fine. You'll be okay. Whenever you are forced into involuntarily unconsciousness, this is where your conscience will be from now on." Rose said, as she proceeded to glimpse around the dark cinema room, "It's quite fitting that your conscience recreated a memory storage that resembles a cinema."

His wife didn't have to say it, but he knew what she meant, considering all the dates they had in the cinema and all the movies they'd watched together. "What..." He was unable to meet her eye as she sidled into the row and took the seat beside him. Rose did not feel like Rose. She spoke with a coldness he was not familiar with. Although he missed her terribly, his knees suddenly went weak at the sight of his wife. He did have an urge to throw his arms around her, to hold her. Yet, even if this was a memory bank, a data storage, or a dream, whatever, he strived to keep calm and collected to his best ability - and was failing miserably.

"Jack, why won't you look at me?"

He was too ashamed to maintain eye contact. "Rose, I..."

"Doktor asked me to sign some papers in order to have it installed... it was against and without your permission and knowledge. He created an interactive AI in my image and likeness. I'm sorry I never told you." Rose said apologetically; she didn't seem to notice as to how shocked he was to see her, "It seems to have activated because of the emergency shutdown."

"...Emergency shutdown?"

"The battle was too much for you." She replied, and she averted her attention from him to the screen, where Harrie was still laboring away with sweat all over her brow and temples. He finally mustered the courage to glance at her, "Look at how hard she's working."

But he didn't care for the girl on screen who was tampering away on some random body part which, no doubt, would be for his use later on. His gaze was solely concentrated on Rose only. "Rose, I...I'm so sorry."

She turned to him again; he forced himself to hold her gaze but it was tremendously difficult. She spoke in an equally hushed murmur as though to make him feel better, "It's okay, Jack. I understand. I will always understand. You know that."

"No, not this time. I-" He faltered for a brief moment, "...I don't...I don't deserve your forgiveness; there's still so many things I wanted to say to you before I left. I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry, that I couldn't be there for you, and John - I never saw him go to college, I...I just left. I never told you."

"Yes, Jack, I know." She replied, and then she moved to stand again - to his dismay, "I knew it would happen one day. I was getting older and older as the years passed and you were still the same. People were talking and things got even more complicated. Jack, I forgive you..." Leaving her sentence trailing, she began to leave the row.

He pursued after her immediately, "Rose, wait, come back! Rose! Don't go!" It didn't matter if this was truly an AI or some computer software in the image of his wife, he yelled after her as loudly as he could, but she never turned round. He found himself growing desperate, belting out everything he had kept bottled up all inside for all those years, all the insecurities, the fear, the guilt... the truth. Everything was flowing out of his mouth with remote abandon. "I know what I did was selfish and stupid – but I didn't want to either! I didn't want to leave you and John! I didn't want to leave you again!"

But Rose was moving farther and farther away, his cries falling on deaf ears.

_"_Rose, don't leave! I'm sorry! Come back! Don't leave me!"

The words embarrassed him. _Don't leave me? I've left them so many times..._ He wanted to let out a bitter laugh. Now was not the time. He tried to follow her, but then there was a white light, temporarily blinding him. He winced, holding a hand to shield his eyes. The white light was intense... and when it finally faded away, Rose was nowhere to be seen. She was gone. He desperately wanted to see her again, to go home, to the world he was familiar with, but deep inside, he knew.

There was no home.  
There was no Rose.  
No Little John.

He was alone.

* * *

Arghhh ok so I have no idea if this was in character of Raiden in this chapter, especially with the interaction between the Rose codec/AI. I hope it was, and when I was writing about Harrie working I just kept picturing Tony Stark when building his Ironman suit TT_TT lol? Also, I hope this chapter sheds some insight as to what may have happened between Raiden and his family.


	5. Chapter 5

**UPDATE!** Hey everyone, apologies for the re-post.

I've added **2 extra parts at the beginning and end of this chapter** which might bear more insight - nothing else has been changed in the chapter except from the part where Raiden asks about his family - in which I thought felt a bit too carefree and his response seemed equally a bit too...er...carefree (in other words, Raiden's response was too free/felt a bit lacking in a bit of remorse for his character I think) so I'll take it out for now and when we get to the more deeper conversations and stuff and more heartfelt moments I'll perhaps reslot it back in. Thank you those who have reviewed so far :)

I've been thinking how to approach the next chapter and realized I should've put in some more things in this chapter that will set some events in the next chapter into motion.

* * *

** A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION**

Harrie remembered that the day her parents died, she was sitting in the back of a large truck.

There was a large, sweaty man dressed in brown rags and a thin, pale and sickly-looking woman who had her eyes closed, leaning against the corner. Occasionally, she let out random fits of coughing; they sounded violent, hoarse and croaky, and full of phlegm. Opposite her, an unshaven man with crooked teeth kept staring at Harrie, grinning. In his hands, he toyed around with a blunt pocket knife. Harrie didn't know what he might had been thinking about but she didn't want to know either way. She remembered that the rest of the passengers were equally disturbing and strange and she didn't want to look at them. There were no other kids except from her. The other passengers were all the same with ashen, pasty complexions and soulless, glassy eyes. With the last of the passengers confirmed, a soldier ahead carrying a rifle and dressed in camouflage-wear, gave a signal.

The journey was quiet as the truck moved slowly through the expanse. There was not a living soul in sight, and the day was cold and dark, as the world Harrie had been born into had always been. They'd chosen dawn to evacuate, because that was when there were no machines prowling around, or so she was led to believe all those years ago. Harrie was holding a logo of the Resistance in her little cold hands, because she needed it to enter; it would guarantee her and her family entry into the refuge, the save haven. Dad didn't have one though, but he believed he could barter for one when they got there. Hopefully they would see that they were a family and did not want to get separated.

Harrie remembered her parents murmuring to each other in hushed tones, and she remembered that they were discussing over some papers they'd salvaged from their ruined home. There were several words in larger font, such as 'HOPE' and 'FUTURE OF MANKIND'. It was a blueprint, and it resembled a human being. At first, it looked like a girl but Harrie's parents kept mentioning 'he' so it was apparently a diagram of a man with fine, long blond-white hair. Harrie didn't know what they were talking about or who this man was in general nor did she know the reason why her parents were discussing about him but she remembered hearing the word 'Raiden' come up a lot of times.

"Mom, what's a Raiden?" Harrie had asked, pointing to the diagram.

Mom showed Harrie the picture so she could have a better look. "Harriet, look at this picture long and hard, okay? You might want to remember him. This is Raiden," She tells Harrie, "He is very important."

And Harrie remembered that she wanted to ask why this 'Raiden' was very important but she didn't get the chance to because from out of nowhere, a large silver canister had crashed into the middle of the truck, startling everyone. She remembered seeing a flashing red light on the side of the canister and the word 'La-li-lu-le-lo' imprinted on the side in bold black letters. The strange canister had come from the sky, and when Harrie had looked up, she remembered that she saw strange machines closing in on them a distance away.

Metal Gears.  
Cyborgs.

Harrie remembered standing amongst the dead bodies, wondering why she was the only one who had been spared. Cyborgs were known to kill every human on sight, after all. But Harrie stood, surrounded by fire and mountains of cold corpses, civilians and soldiers alike, staring down at the mangled bodies of her parents, the diagram of Raiden covered in blood and burning to a crisp. At least she'd remembered everything from that single glance.

_...hope..._

_...future of mankind..._

_...Raiden..._

That was the day Harrie made it her mission to find Raiden, no matter what.

* * *

**PRESENT**

"Harrie? Harrie!"

"Huh? What?"

"Harrie, did you hear what I said?"

"...Uh... Oh, right. Um, Ken, take the next right."

There was an annoyed grunt over the receiving end of the codec but she ignored it. Raiden said, "...Copy that."

Harrie watched the cyborg trudge through the murky waters of the flooded basement within the ruined laboratory of Maverick industries before turning the right to enter a long, moldy corridor. He was on a mission on his own since he now believed that Harrie going outside to the wide expanse by her lonesome was no longer practical or safe, so Harrie sat comfortably in her rickety chair in her dark lab, watching the screen on her computer, sipping at a juicebox that was at least a few years old. She'd deal with the diarrhoea later; for now, she had a real craving for the tasty flavor of apples and this juice was really hitting the spot.

Days ago, and Raiden had finally woke up from his coma. He woke up with a loud yell of _'ROSE!'_ that shook the walls of the lab, and Harrie had been asleep too, causing her to jerk up in her seat at the desk and almost hit her head against one of the low shelves. She had turned to him then, saw that Raiden had woken up (although he appeared to have woken up in an extremely distressed manner), and she asked him what was wrong but he had been secretive and elusive, refusing to answer.

A part of him had hoped that this had been all a crazy dream and that he'd wake up in the bed he would share with Rose. They had their fair share of bed problems – not in _that_ sense – they literally had bed problems, as in, they had problems getting a bed that would sustain Raiden's gargantuan, more than average, body weight. Every bed they'd bought out of the local furniture store and he'd broken them in half. Every mattress and he'd flattened them to the size of pancakes in days. They eventually resorted to getting a customized mattress made out of some material with a bizarre, never-heard-of-to-man name which cost a fortune. Apparently custom-made mattress manufacturers existed somewhere in America; it was a very small niche market.

But no, he woke up six weeks later to find himself in Harrie's lab, strapped to the operating table and that he was indeed hoisted upright and held down by elastic belts that resembled car seatbelts that had been securely fastened over his shoulders, chest, waist and legs. And for the next few days, the cyborg was a little mopey as Harrie carried out mandatory checks and inspections; even when Harrie explained to him about how he catapulted himself into the RAY, he was told that he killed it, but at the same time, he exploded upon impact and lost an arm and leg and fell unconscious.

"Don't do that again!" Harrie had scolded him angrily and worriedly, "What the hell were you thinking?!"

He didn't really know what he was thinking back then, it was along the lines of 'Must save Harrie by all means', and she did thank him for saving her life and later on that day of his glorious awakening, Shelly the Dwarf Gekko came down the stairs and shook his hand.

So, Harrie had built him a new body and had sent him packing him on a mission after some rounds of VR training. He didn't know what happened to his old body; it must have been tossed into a ravine somewhere. He woke up feeling not quite himself and noticed that he was no longer rusty, dirty or old. He was brand-spanking new, even with brand-new car smell thanks to those odor control things that were used to hang off interior car mirrors.

As a lot of blueprints were lost during a harsh time of war and societal collapse, Harrie's creative mind was unfortunately hindered by the lack of resources, thus it took double the time it usually took to get Raiden fixed and she ticked off her hopes in constructing for him a plasma cutter, machine gun and other commodities that he didn't exactly want since he preferred the sword and bushido ways (which Harrie said was now a lost art). In fact, all she managed to pack in was a half-working OctoCamo. She'd basically built him a new body based off of the last design Doktor had utilized, except Raiden was a slightly different color this time. He was spray-painted black to blend in with the surroundings and to be unseen by the machines. She didn't know what to do with his hair so she left it the way it was. She gave him new optical implants and also crafted him a new HF blade, in which he remembered witnessing her bludgeoning away at hot steel with a hammer at some point during his comatose state. Creating his body had not been easy; everything had to be precise, perfect in every single way to the brink that it was almost impossible...If one calculation was wrong, if one piece was one milimeter too large or too small and that was enough to throw all of Raiden's dynamics off the charts, thus to see the cyborg walking around and ninja-running all over the place with no problems at all with the new blade strapped to his back was a godsend.

"What happened to the RAY anyway?" Raiden asked, as she guided him to the direction of the store room, "Did you just leave it there?"

"No, of course not, cyborgs would've seen it. I harvested it."

"You mean...?"

"Yep." Harrie replied nonchalantly, "Your armor was directly manufactured from pieces of the RAY. It's the strongest metal that's out there these days, and I can't get access to rare materials like these so having that RAY around was actually quite handy."

Raiden sounded a little confused as he glanced down at himself; so his armor was actually recycled from the salvaged components of the RAY he'd destroyed? "How did you manage to carry all those pieces back to the lab anyway?"

"Shelly. She can carry a lot of things."

"_She_?"

"Yeah, Shelly's a girl, durrh."

"I didn't think Dwarf Gekkos would...you know, have a _gender_."

"Shelly is a girl. I checked, Ken."

Again with the 'Ken' nickname. He had no idea why she kept calling him that. "Right," came Raiden's dry reply as he stormed down the corridor, "You never told me how you got a pet Dwarf Gekko."

There was a slight pause on Harrie's end following his question. "I programmed her." She said, a few minutes after the hesitation, "She was actually trying to kill us but Richmond managed to subdue her and I reprogrammed her to help us. She's been on our side since."

"How did that work out? You switched it to neutral or something?"

"There's a certain frequency all the cyborgs are programmed to. I managed to hack into it for Shelly's case, but it keeps changing, as if it's got a mind of its own."

"What kind of frequency?" He asked, but he had to put that question on hold as soon as the corridor branched to both sides in front of him, "Okay, I'm at a crossroad; which path do I take? Left or right?"

"Left, please. Thank you." Harrie replied, and he took the left as instructed and spotted a cyborg ahead patrolling the lone corridor a distance away with his back to him. "Easy now..." She said, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Make sure it doesn't see you. Don't want it alerting its cyborg buddies now, right?"

With Harrie speaking to him over the codec, it reminded him drastically of his days as a private military contractor...except he was not doing this for profit. In fact, Raiden was not earning money at all for this mission. Would there be any kind of remuneration involved? Probably not. He would have to ask Harrie later on, although he had a feeling money was not important or useful in this society. The whole reason for this mission was to grab some more materials for his body from the abandoned lab and to come back. Sneaking towards the unsuspecting cyborg, Raiden unsheathed his blade and once he finally crept towards his prey with supreme stealth, he proceeded to ram the blade into the cyborg from behind, the tip of the blade piercing through the cyborg's body and out of the chest.

"Raiden, that was..."

"What?" He said, as he pulled the blade out, swung it and blood went splashing onto the walls. The cyborg's body collapsed onto the floor, twitching slightly.

"That was unnecessary." came Harrie's flat response as she gawped at the dead cyborg.

"What were you expecting? I tickle him to death?"

"That's not what I mean." She said with a sigh, "Never mind; we have to get rid of the body before we continue."

Get rid of the body? Oh right, in case other cyborgs saw it and alerted them of his presence. He grabbed the cyborg by the legs and dumped it into a corner somewhere, then covered it with one of the many dirty rags that hung from the ceiling. He had the feeling she was perturbed by his action but what else was he supposed to do? If she had _read_ all about him, she should be aware of his past as a child soldier and all the horrors he had to endure and witness as a child. He said, "Where to?"

"Keep going straight ahead, please."

"Copy that." He replied. Once he made it to the storeroom, he saw that it was locked via a keycode and would require a four digit numerical code to be allowed entry. "What do you think it is?"

"You can use your AR display to look for prints."

Again, as instructed, he used his AR display and once all color had been filtered except from the usual darkish blue-gray and the occasional amber, he saw the numbers two, four, seven and zero covered in dirty marks. With that, he switched off the display, returning to his normal vision. "I guess this makes a pretty decent crime scene tool, huh?"

"They're not really called 'crimes' anymore, but that's because there's no more police or law, Ken."

"It must be really rough."

"Not really. People just kill and steal to get what they want now and they get away with it."

"How can you live in a time like this?"

She looked at her dirty, grubby fingernails and shrugged, "I know, it makes your time sound like the golden age."

"Trust me, Harrie, it was far from it."

"So, any ideas buzzing around in your marvelous brain about the combination?"

"I'll try them all out."

"That's a lot to go through. If I'm correct, it'll be around nine thousand. You'll be stuck there for hours."

"That's fine with me."

"That's true, you don't need to go to the bathroom or eat anymore. You don't even have to worry about personal hygiene or feeling hungry. Or peeing. How does that feel by the way?"

To humor her, he said, "Like the best feeling in the world."

"Yeah, I'll bet."

The codec banter was fun, he admitted (if not, a little bizarre), as he tried the various possible combinations. His clawed fingers were flying through all the possible codes since Harrie's upgrade meant his reflexes were as quick as lightning. His fingers were literally gliding over each button. "To be honest, it could be Doktor's birthday." He suggested.

"Do you remember his birthday?"

"...Not really." He said dryly, and she giggled, "By the way, you never told me who's behind this war."

"Well, the funny thing is, Ken...we don't really know. All we know is that whenever a cyborg sees us, they just want to kill us without hesitation."

"Could it be the Patriots?"

"I'm not sure. Guess we'll have to go find the cyborg capital and see for ourselves."

"Cyborg capital?"

"Well, all cyborgs have to go back somewhere. It's really complicated. I'll tell you more when you come back, okay?"

"Sure, and how do you know all this stuff about cyborgs and programming, anyway? Where did you learn all this stuff? Did Richmond teach you?"

"No. My parents were cyberneticists. I'm sure Richmond must've told you; they were killed by cyborgs when I was really young."

He muttered, "Sorry."

"It's okay, it happened a long time ago." She said, and the conversation ended there. It made Raiden think twice about enquiring about Harrie's past since it seemed to be a dead end to conversations...not to mention that it made Harrie uncomfortable and awkward. He inwardly wanted to kick himself for his disregard.

"...Was it already like this when you were born? With the war, the cyborgs, and the world, like this?"

"Yeah. So, er...what happened to you when you were in a coma?" Harrie asked, in an effort to turn the conversation away from herself, "Could you hear anything?"

"No," He lied, "I was just...asleep."

She nodded. "I see. That's interesting, I should note that down."

The door finally unlocked and Raiden entered the storeroom after cutting down the door with a few well-timed slashes of his blade.

"...What the hell! Why did you do that? Stop slicing up doors! What's wrong with opening it using the doorknob, geez?! You'll ruin your sword and all my hard work!"

"Sorry, force of habit." He grunted, sheathing the blade as the door fell to pieces in front of him. "So, what do you want me to take back?" He added as he stepped over the broken door, glancing around the massive room that were filled with supplies.

"Hey, what's that over there?"

"What?"

She guided him to a corner in the right where a couple of moldy cardboard boxes were propped up. "Hey, it's a lovebox!" She exclaimed, whilst he grunted under his breath. "And there's some raunchy magazines on the floor too! What do you think Doktor was up to during his time off, hm?"

Indeed there were a few adult magazines lying on the floor in a heap near the loveboxes that appeared to have preserved in good shape despite the years. Raiden hissed out, "Focus, Harrie. I'm pretty sure they're not Doktor's."

"Okay, okay...We're looking for some replenishment materials. Take some Carbon nanotube muscle fibers and biotic nanorepair paste, please. Take one lovebox too."

"What? Why?"

"You never know when we might need one."

"Are you kidding?"

"Well, it's either the lovebox or that drum can over there."

"I'd rather take the box," He uttered, as he took one cardboard box and unfolded it into a flat shape, "And what do carbon nanotube fibers and biotic repair paste look like?"

She scoffed. "It's weird how you're a cyborg but you don't even know what you look like or what you're made out of."

"Well, do you know what your brain looks like?"

"I do, actually. I've seen one before. It was really ugly, in fact; it was the most ugliest, slimiest thing I'd seen in my whole entire life." She replied, and he rolled his eyes, then listened to Harrie's instruction. "Take that one." She was saying. "No, not that one. To your right. Your other right! No, it's not that shelf! Bottom one! Yeah, that one. Take that big blue ball thingy. Take about ten, will ya?"

_Ugh, what a bossy girl,_ he thought, as he dropped the items into the backpack Harrie had supplied him with. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. There's plenty more on the grocery list." Harrie murmured, glancing at the list in her hand. "Take some of those magazines too; never know when we might have some horny cyborgs, haha."

"...You're not talking about me, are you?"

"What? No. Well, maybe, if you're kinky like that."

"...This is one weird conversation."

"I think weird conversations are the best kind of conversation there is, Ken."

After he'd collected everything, including the raunchy adult magazines as Harrie had asked, the bag was bulging. "Harrie, this thing weighs a tonne." He said, feeling the weight with one hand. He was worried the seams would've broken apart.

"Yep, thank god you're here, right? If it was me, I'd have to wheel those stuff out in a trolley. To you, that must weigh like a sack of feathers."

"It's...kinda heavy, but I can carry it."

"Great. Come back home now. That's all we need for now."

He paused. _Come back home. That's what Rose said to me. _"Copy that," Raiden muttered, slinging the bag over his shoulder. He proceeded to leave the storeroom, glancing left to right. When Harrie gave him the all clear, he began to leave the storeroom and returned to the lab front.

Mission accomplished.

* * *

**MEANWHILE**

The doors to the Great Hall opened and at the doorway stood a young man adorned in exoskeleton armor that was painted a deep red and black in color; however, with each step he took, the ground quaked violently under each clawed foot. He was a cyborg, with beautiful, sharp features, a high aquiline nose and stern frown, his hair black hair and short, covering one glowing red eye. In his hand, he carried a glaive that was at least twice his height, with a smooth black finish and decorated with silver rings, fixed with a deadly quicksilver blade which he kept pointing towards the ground. A matching black mask covered his mouth, and he was silent as he made his way towards the throne at the end of the Hall.

A man sat on the throne, lounging leisurely. An attendant stood by his side, holding an empty tray in hand. Before the throne a distance away, were a line of cowering, whimpering humans, kneeling on the cold floor and bound by shackles. There were three adult humans, two men and one woman, and there was a small child - a little boy - no older than the age of five.

"Ah," said the man who sat at the throne, "Tetsuo, you're here."

The mask pulled away from his mouth, returning to the sides of his face, "You summoned me." came the cyborg's low, gravelly voice. He averted his gaze from the shivering humans who were too afraid to look anywhere else apart from the ground below them. "How may I be of assistance, my lord?"

"A drone returned from patrol today with an interesting update." said the lord, "I'd like you to head to the human city known as '_Denver_'. One of my RAYs was last seen making rounds there. It never came back. I want to know what happened."

"Yes, sir." Tetsuo replied, "I shall head out immediately."

"Very good." said the lord.

"What should we do with the humans we found, my lord?" asked the attendant, as Tetsuo began to leave the room.

And the lord stood up in his throne, passing the humans one by one. Each step he took was equally as heavy, the ground thudding underneath his feet. "Kill them." He said, and there were howls of anguish and louder, dreary cries emitting from the humans, "Spare none."

"My lord –"

"What?"

The attendant gestured to the little boy sitting amongst the prisoners. "There is a _child_."

"Oh, right." The lord murmured; he moved closer and crouched in front of the boy, then put his hand on top of his head, ruffling the boy's dirty blond hair before pulling his hand away, "Kill them all, except the kid."


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone, sorry for the late update. I had a lot of things going on in the past few weeks :( I hope you enjoy this chapter ~

* * *

**IT ONLY TAKES A MOMENT**

Raiden returned to Harrie's shelter from his brief mission. He'd been on the lookout the entire time, cautious and wary of cyborgs and RAYs but there was none around; Richmond was right - this part of the city really was remotely safe – and as soon as the coast was clear, he'd ninja-ran all the way to safety and arrived at the base. Once he entered Harrie's bookstore front, he stopped at the bookshelf that concealed the doors leading to her lab only to overhear an interesting conversation:

"I'm thinking of going to the Resistance." It was Harrie's voice he could hear first.

And then it was Richmond's voice he could hear next: "What?! Why?"

"Because we've found Raiden." replied Harrie.

"But they...well, you know what happened last time...if you bring him, I don't know what'll happen."

"Yeah, but what if they've changed?"

There was a sigh from Richmond's end. "I don't know, but are you sure you want to go through all that again?"

"...I...I don't know, but I can't just stay here; I need to take Raiden to the Resistance. He can find out more about the war and the cyborgs. He can find out what happened to his family and friends."

"Then I'll come with you. I'll keep you safe."

"No. No, it's alright. You can't. You know what'll happen if you do...and...and I probably won't be able to protect you this time round. I don't know what they'll do to you."

"Well, what about Raiden? What difference will it make?"

"It _will_ be different this time; Richmond, stay here. You'll be safer here."

Now there was a chuckle. "You don't have to worry about me, Harrie. I'll be perfectly fine. By the way, about Raiden...***mumble mumble mumble* **When you are travelling with him, _should_ you travel with him...***mumble mumble* **I don't want you staying in caves or sharing rooms together."

"What! But Raiden saved my life-"

"I mean the ***mumble*** Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ***mumble mumble***."

"Yeah, I know all about that. I get night terrors too. We can have night terrors together. I'm not afraid."

"***mumble mumble* **It doesn't matter, it won't be safe ***mumble*** he can't stay in a room or the same cave with you."

"It's fine, Richmond, honestly. You are such a drama queen."

"***mumble* **But you're a girl ***mumble mumble*** and ***mumble*** no crotch, but he's still a guy."

Despite Richmond's employment of hushed tone and the mumblings, Raiden heard the majority of the entire discussion, or at least, the focal points. It was still rather embarrassing to have overheard such a conversation... Controversial and ego-bruising to say the least (with regards to the apparent absence of his crotch). He tried not to wince and let out a heavy sigh, shifting slightly in his spot at the awkward situation he'd unwittingly found himself in, and a few moments later, he heard the doors open and saw the bookcase moving; Richmond had been heading up the stairs and Raiden stood stiffly at the entrance.

"Raiden!" Richmond exclaimed as the cyborg stood, immobilized for a brief moment, "You're back."

"...Yeah." grunted the cyborg, dumping the bag of salvaged goods onto the floor of the deserted bookshop; he wondered if he should tell him he'd eavesdropped on the conversation. Probably not.

"Oh, hey, Ken, you're back!" Now he could see Harrie fumbling up the stairs after the old man; she climbed out of the basement stairs and spotted Raiden's bag on the floor. "Alright, you got everything. Great work!" She let out a cackle of glee and dived for the bag in minutes, opening it with little care before rifling through excitedly. Richmond and Raiden watched on silently with intrigue; in Raiden;s eyes, Harrie resembled a kid at Christmas.

Raiden crossed his arms as Harrie excitedly dug through the bag, pulling out various of the strange materials she'd forced him to take; Richmond patted his shoulder heartily as he stopped beside him.

"Thank you for helping us, Mr Raiden." said Richmond as he began to waddle out of the bookstore. "We really appreciate the extra help."

Harrie didn't even bother to glance up from the bag she'd been rummaging around in, "Hey Richmond, didn't you want Ken to help you out with some stuff, too?"

"Hm? Oh, right...well, only if Mr Raiden has time to help-"

"Of course he does." Harrie said absent-mindedly as she went through the salvaged goodies; Richmond threw Raiden a hopeful, almost wistful look, and the cyborg could do nothing but comply.

"What would you like me to help you with?" Raiden asked; he did not mind lending a hand. With only Richmond and Harrie here, he often wondered how they got around. They must've struggled. Having Raiden here must have made their lives a lot easier. Aside from several VR training missions, Raiden had also assisted in some menial repairs, minor plumbing work and other physical labor that usually Richmond took care of.

The old man was smiling widely at Raiden's offer. "Excellent! Mr Raiden, please come with me." Leaving Harrie to retreat to her lab with her new goodies, Richmond left the bookstore and the cyborg followed suit.

Outside, and Richmond went hobbling towards a vehicle that the cyborg hadn't noticed before that was parked beside a ruined sidewalk. Richmond fumbled in his pockets and took out a key, which he jammed into the vehicle's rusty slot on one of the doors. The vehicle door hissed open weakly and Richmond slid inside. "Did you see any cyborgs outside?"

"Nope."

"Alright, then let's go, Mr Raiden. Don't worry, we'll be quick."

"Where are we going?" He asked as he took the passenger seat; it was amazing this 'car' could accommodate his weight. Raiden closed the door behind him and Richmond switched the engine on; the vehicle went into a rumbling start before the old man began to steer the vehicle out and into the ruined road.

"There's a warehouse ahead. It's where I get food and drink. We've run out." Richmond said, driving the car slowly over the rubble and pebbly road; the car went bouncing but he didn't seem to notice while Raiden had to hold onto the seat, "It's not too far away; usually I walk but I thought I'd take the car so we could carry more."

_Looks like they hadn't found another futuristic word for 'car' yet. _Raiden thought, as Richmond steered them out of the base and into the expanse.

"We're here." Richmond said, pulling up near the entrance. The old man switched the engine off and they both climbed out of the car. Raiden glanced around at the dilapidated building only to realize it was just a rundown supermarket and as Richmond began hobbling up to the doors, he proceeded to follow the old man into the building. There were trolleys lying around over the ground and pushed against one wall of the market recklessly. Shards of glass littered the floor. The automated glass doors didn't open as they approached, instead, Raiden entered by stepping over the gaps in the door where sharp glass shards poked out. The smooth floor of the market's entrance was covered in substance that appeared to be dried blood.

It was indeed a supermarket, although it was despairingly empty even though Raiden had been given the impression that it was supposed to be overflowing with goods. He watched Richmond ignore the vegetables and fruit section before wandering up to one of the shelves and pull out some tinned cans. The old man plunged a hand into his pockets and pulled out a pair of old glasses, then proceeded to ogle at the expiry date on the side of the can.

"Mr Raiden, can you bring a basket over please?"

"When was the last time you ate something fresh?" Raiden asked, as he handed Richmond a basket he'd seized from one of the stands; the old man proceeded to dump a can inside.

"Huh? Oh...hm...I don't really remember." mumbled the old man as he emptied more cans into the basket, which Raiden found ironic, since all the paying lanes were empty and the cash registers were not even working properly. Richmond quickly made short work of the supermarket, since most of the food were either expired or rotting and by then, he'd only salvaged a total of eight cans.

Raiden looked at the contents of the basket. "That's only enough food for one person; it won't last a week."

"I know." Richmond said, "They're for Harrie."

"...What about yourself?"

"I'll be fine. I'm old. I don't need to eat as much as I used to. I can't even taste anymore. Harrie's young and still growing. She's like a skeleton. She needs to eat more."

"And when was the last time you ate a proper meal?"

With that, Richmond shrugged, but smiled jovially regardless. "When you go to the Resistance, there'll be a lot of food there, oh yes, They hold big feasts all the time."

"Really?" He didn't exactly believe that statement. Since Richmond had mentioned the Resistance, Raiden thought now was a good time to talk about it. "And where are they based?"

"Idaho. There's a military faction, and the Church of Otacon is there too."

He remembered Richmond mentioning this when he was in a coma. "...Church of Otacon?" Again, now seemed like another good time to ask.

"Yes, I pray occasionally. I always pray to the Holy Saint, _Otacon_, to look after Harrie and you too, Mr Raiden, on your holy mission to purge the world of evil cyborgs. I pray to him to lend you his strength and to watch over you."

Raiden stared at Richmond, hard. "You can't be serious. _Holy Saint_?"

"Oh yes, Holy Saint Otacon of all things good and holy and non-machina."

The cyborg almost choked on his own artificial spit. "What?" He croaked out; he had heard this the last time, too. At first, he thought it was a joke... Raiden struggled hard not to let out a snigger. He didn't know if he should say anything. "So... why do you worship Otacon?" Raiden asked, before he scratched at the back of his head awkwardly, "Otacon was...well, uh..."

"Hm? What about our Holy Patron?"

"...Never mind." He replied flatly. Richmond shrugged but said nothing. And now would be a good time to change the subject. It was just too bizarre for Raiden's liking. "Harrie said no-one knows who's behind the war."

"Yes, that's true. A long time ago, cyborgs and humans were at peace. It was only the last century or so when cyborgs had fiercely begun to attack humans, overpowering them and eventually committing mass genocide. No-one knows when it really started or who started it. If it's something you should know, Mr Raiden, is there are three types of cyborgs."

"Three types?"

"Yes. The first is 'full', or 'complete' cyborgs – those whose bodies have been completely mechanized with little organic or human component left behind, like yourself, Mr Raiden. They are no longer human and are the strongest type of cyborgs that can be encountered."

"And what's the second type?"

"Hybrids."

"_Hybrids_?"

"Yes, hybrids are...humans with minor enhancements, their bodies mechanized in an insignificant manner, such as, for example, they've had a missing limb replaced with a prosthetic one, or they've received implants, things like that. The third and last type are Metal Gears, both manned or unmanned. We've categorized them as 'cyborgs', since technically the cyborgs have seized control of all robots and whatever gadget that is out these days." Richmond replied, "You see, when I found Harrie all those years ago, she was only about six years old. Even then, I knew she was different than other children. She was very intelligent and possessed extensive knowledge of cyborgs beyond her years. I never knew her parents, but she told me they were cyberneticists. I'm sure they would be very proud of her."

"What was she like when she was younger?" Raiden asked as he continued to follow Richmond down the aisles. They'd passed the meat section (which smelled dreadful), then they passed the frozen goods aisle and the sauces, but Richmond picked nothing up until they arrived at the liquor aisle which was almost half-empty.

"Well, when we were captured... I mean, we were captured by cyborgs and put into this prison...and when I met her, she was...quiet. It took her a long time until she finally opened up and began speaking. She witnessed something extremely traumatizing. She would always look at me with this solemn, serious expression. And this was when she was only six years old. Now she hardly stops talking, haha." Richmond said, walking up to one shelf and pulling out a six-pack of beers.

Raiden wasn't sure whether he should laugh or not.

"Also...Harrie's always been smiling since she found you." Richmond mused, smiling to himself contentedly. "I've never seen her so happy before. It's nice. However, I do apologize about Harrie's behaviour. Forgive me, I've spoiled her so much. She gets her way too often. It's not that she doesn't care. She does, she does care. I know for a fact that she cares a lot about you."

_Yeah, I get the feeling too, _he thought. "No need to apologize." He muttered, "How did you escape?"

"I don't remember much. It was a long time ago." Richmond dumped the multipack of cans inside the basket without little care, "If it's not too much to ask...I would like you to take Harrie to the Resistance. You must realize by now, Mr Raiden, that this city is no place for Harrie, not forever. She's still young, but she needs to go to a place with a greater populace than this, to be back within general civilization. The Resistance will welcome her and she can meet more people there. She can live a better, happier life. There's nothing out here in Denver. I haven't seen a single soul pass by and it's been years. There is no future for her if she continues to stay here."

Raiden watched him steely, then said, "...Aren't you going to come to the Resistance?"

"No. If I leave, go out into the wilderness, I won't make it. My leg's useless and well...I'm old. I'll just drag you down. On the other hand, now that you're here, I feel so much at ease now. I can rest happy. I've decided to just stay here and live. I trust you; I trust you to look after Harrie." Richmond said. Again, this served to surprise the cyborg to a certain extent since he recalled the conversation he'd overheard that occurred between Richmond and Harrie. "From what's happened since your arrival and the defeat of the RAY at your hands...I know that you can...you can _protect_ Harrie, Mr Raiden, therefore I trust you."

"Yeah, well..." Raiden muttered, glancing off to the side, "Sometimes I don't even trust myself."

"Well, we trust you more than you trust yourself." Richmond said, emitting a light-hearted laugh, "And I think that's much better, don't you think?"

...

**MEANWHILE**

Harrie glanced up and away from her notepad; she had been scribbling down some notes about the outcome of Raiden's missions and training she'd put him through. She couldn't help but laugh as she recalled some of the interesting codec conversations they'd had over the past few days since he'd woken up and she had been jotting down his overall progress but somehow the standard report seemed to have strayed to something else, something deeper, since she noticed she'd suddenly doodled a loveheart around his name.

At first, she stared hard and wide-eyed at what she had just done, her jaw dropped and the pencil rolled out of her limp hand. Then she tore the paper out before scrunching it into a ball and threw it onto the floor. Where had that even come from? She sat in her seat, placing a clenched fist over her chest. Even thinking about the cyborg for a fraction of a second had caused her heart to pound a little faster than usual and her cheeks were feeling warmer than usual, too. She was confused. When did this happen? When did this begin? She hadn't noticed it until now...

_Uhnhh...uh, no, what am I doing? What's going on?_

Raiden was a married man. He even had a child. It wouldn't be right. To even _think _about it was despicable.

"No, no, nooo..." She chided herself, clamping both hands over the sides of her head and shaking to and fro, "No, stop it, no..."

...

Tetsuo finally arrived at the human city known as Denver after a six hour journey without a single break, and gradually came to a stop on his bike.

He climbed off after he removed his helmet, setting his feet on the ground, and from the side of his bike, he lifted up his glaive and unfolded it to its usual length. With glaive in hand, he scoured the landscape before him. He had never been to Denver before but it looked like the other cities he'd been to. The city, like many others, appeared to be deserted. His sensors did not pick up anything; there was nothing warm or cold blooded nearby. He'd searched the expanse before but all he found was remnants of the missing RAY buried and shoved into a ditch and he grew suspicious, as he could tell that it'd been stripped of its outer shell, all armor stripped and removed. Whatever did that was not on their side that was for sure, which only meant...

There were humans here.

And it was up to Tetsuo to eliminate them.


End file.
